Jyotika Misra
Student, Study Hall School

In April, 2014 we saw the horrific case of 234 Nigerian schoolgirls being abducted by an Islamist terror group. This incident garnered the attention of everyone across the world irrespective of their nationality, religion or race. It forced many to ask what actually an Islamist group is. Do these people who claim to propagate Islam even understand the religion? This group abducted innocent Nigerian girls in order to force the government to meet their demand of releasing their militants in return of providing freedom to their girls. But the question here is whether the method which they adopted is right and Islamic (as they mention it)? The initial inactiveness of the government on the whole issue is also something which gathered eyeball of everyone across the globe.

Boko Haram, the militant group which abducted the girls, claims to follow and preach Islam to such extent that its official name translated to English as ‘People committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and Jihad’. But this name is wholly inappropriate for such extremist group. The deeds of the members of Boko Haram which comprises of kidnapping, murdering is nowhere in line with what Prophet Mohammad taught the world. Islam is as peaceful as any other religion, whether it be Hinduism or Christianity. But it is due to these extremist groups that it is wrongly interpreted. One of the main principles of Islam states that no one should be a cause of anyone else’s grievances. Here, torturing or traumatizing anyone is considered as haram. But through this action of Boko Haram, hundreds of girls are into trouble and their families are in the worst state, awaiting the arrival of their loved ones. They don’t know in what state their daughters are? And whether they will ever come back to them? In a recent video released by this militant group we saw the Nigerian girls wearing hijab and reciting the namaz. This showed that they have been converted to Islam by the group. But this action is completely immoral and unethical. No person can force anyone to adopt a particular religion, this is what even the holy book states. The leader of the group in the same video states, that they have ‘liberated’ the girls by converting them to Islam. But is this liberation? By carrying out inhuman activities like abducting the girls, converting them to Islam, this group is rather imprisoning the girls and forcing them to slavery.

Boko Haram is a group which largely targets secular, western educational institutions as they think that these can be a threat to their religion. But in the process of doing so they are worsening the global scenario. There is no harm in being religious but the real problem arises when people become communal and extremist. The action of this militant group is in contradiction with what they claim to propagate. Instead of promoting Prophet Mohammad’s version of Islam they are bringing it into a bad light through its misinterpretations. Whether based on religious context or human interpretations, no value in the history of mankind justifies such brutal acts.

In order to avoid such situations firstly it’s important for such groups to understand the religion, its true meaning and the human values attached to it. And in order to avoid communal divide in the extreme situations like what Nigeria is facing, it is the duty of Muslims to deliver the real message of Islam to the world. At the same time it is also the duty of non-Muslims to understand the holistic situation before rushing to judge.